The Official TickTockStuck

The official tumblr for the horror-based Homestuck AU, TickTockStuck, concerning the cast of Homestuck (and Hiveswap) in a city of monsters and clockwork horrors (and worlds of nightmares around them).

[ticktockstuck]

We Are Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Hi folks.

I wish I was here with a better update but, as you can probably tell from the title of this post, we've got some somber news for today.

Here's the short version: My Mac, where I do most of my work and where tons of documentation and organization for TickTockStuck is kept, has experienced some sudden and unexpected drive issues. At the time of writing I have no way of reliably accessing any of the files on there, which means I'll have to put a halt to any further work on TTS and the TTS Extended Zodiac for the time being.

The good news is that I've been able to confirm all the files are still safe and uncorrupted. I can't access them but they should be able to sit still until I can get the data out and get the Mac repaired.

The bad news is that those repairs will wipe the system memory, so I need to get my files out first. While I've found a place that can help with data recovery it's not going to be a cheap service, and I don't have an estimate for how long it's going to be until I can afford to get the repairs done.

A few things I want to stress at this time:

I'm not opening up donations at this time. Aside from TTS' low foot traffic making me lack confidence in that route, I'm not in such dire financial straits that this whole process should take more than a few months. By the time TickTockStuck hits in 11th Anniversary in July we should be back up and running.

While I'm going to have to put a full stop to the TickTockStuck Extended Zodiac for this period, I don't intend for this main blog to linger idly. I'll be doing what I can to put out content during these troubles, to the extent that I'm able to without access to my usual documentation.

I'm not opening donations but I am interested in possibly opening up commissions at some point in the future. I won't speak to what shape that'll look like if I decide to pursue that route - whether it's TickTockStuck-related work or otherwise - but it's something I've been meaning to try for a very long time.

I'll keep you all updated as this situation develops.

As always, thank you all for sticking around with us through everything. This is your faithful showrunner signing off for now.

[ticktockstuck]

Hi! Presuming you’re not dead (no offence, you’ve just been MIA for long enough I’m starting to wonder), I have a question about the Hopebound designs. You mentioned all Hopebound characters are based on some variety of angel, and I was wondering what Diemen and Cirava were based on? Daraya seems to be based on the pop culture version of angels (and maybe also demons, considering the rope tail), and you’ve explained what all the other Hopebound characters with publicly-available design were based on, but those two have me stumped. Thank you, and I hope things are going well for you!

Hi there! We apologize for our unexpectedly long hiatus, the tech issues that were plaguing us are...plaguing us more extensively than we thought they would. We're making progress on fixing things but we don't have a good timeframe on when we're gonna rise from the dead.

As for your question:

Diemen's angel feature is a pretty subtle one - it's just the fact he has two mouths, mimicking the multi-headed Cherubim and Seraphim.

Cirava diverges from the theme a bit to fit into the vaporwave aesthetic but in their pre-petrification state they take qualities from sea angels with visible organs.

[ticktockstuck]

When I draw a character from Tick-Tock Town with messy hair that's not even an indicator that they, like, have a messy lifestyle or they're unkempt or anything that's just because Tick-Tock Town is a seaside city and the wind is atrocious, so good luck keeping any kind of coif or perm here.

[ticktockstuck]

Hello, everyone, and Happy 10th Anniversary to TickTockStuck! The actual anniversary might've been on Wednesday but we couldn't let the occasion pass us by without a little... showmanship.

This is the first time we've properly shown off our Marvus design! I wanted one of our designs-in-waiting to show themselves off for the big double-digits, and it was either Marvus, Lanque, or Roxy but ultimately I felt only the Midnight Melpomene's tertiary ringmaster suited the pomp and circumstance needed for something as momentous as hitting a decade.

( Art was a collaboration between me and my partner of-almost-a-decade, who didn't wish to be credited directly here. )

[ticktockstuck]

(We did plan on having a big celebratory art piece to celebrate our tenth in addition to the post, but this anniversary actually wound up sneaking up on us kinda quick so it's still in the works. We should be able to get it out on Friday. Sorry! Doing something big like a 10th anniversary takes time to do it with the amount of effort it deserves.)

(Teaser: It involves a character that hasn't gotten a TTS Troll Call yet.)

[ticktockstuck]

Happy Wednesday, everyone! The good news today is that (inhales)

🎉 TICKTOCKSTUCK IS TEN YEARS OLD TODAY! 🎉

That's right! A whole decade! A lot of the horrorstucks we were born in the midst of have died out and faded away but we're still kicking!

We've definitely had some rough years in those ten, and a lot more dead air than I'd like, but in spite of all of that we've been slowly chipping away and filling out the TickTockStuck universe one piece at a time.

We're not planning on stopping any time soon, either! We might have to do it at our usual pace but there's a lot still in the works for TTS. Frankly, there's more in mind than I can squeeze into one post (and more than I should probably show off before it's ready). If there's one thing I want to say right now, it's this:

We're not going to be going through the weeds of backstory and lore and background information forever. Eventually, we're going to get closer to the actual story of TickTockStuck. I've always had a grand overarching narrative in mind with this universe, and I won't be satisfied until I've told you all at least a little about it. It's not going to be right away - maybe not even in this next year - but it's something I've always been working towards.

I know we aren't the most exciting AU to keep eyes on, so let me say one more thing to everybody who's stuck with us for this long: Thank you all for your patience. We wouldn't have kept going for as long as we have if it wasn't for your continued support.

And, y'know, hopefully in the next ten years we accomplish everything we want to get done because if we don't...well we'll figure that out when we get there. Happy 712, everyone!

[ticktockstuck]

How is it only a week and a day to our tenth anniversary. What even happened to the time.

[ticktockstuck]

( For those wondering why we’re only announcing the TTSEZ’s return the day of its return: There was going to be a more formal announcement on Friday but I had a doctor’s appointment that day and I just straight-up forgot to type it up, and by the time I’d realized what happened it was going to be too much work to re-queue a month’s worth of signs. Our apologies for the abruptness. )

[ticktockstuck-ezodiac]

TUCITTARIUS Sign of the Lurking

TU©* = Crimson Sign • *ITTARIUS = Derse + Void

◈≫༻──◇──◇──༺≪◈≫༻──◇──◇──༺≪◈

#743: A sign for the light-averse and for revenants hiding in the shadows and back-alleys on the side of the road. The only sign of their presence will be the gleam of an arrowhead, shot from the dark.

◈≫༻──◇──◇──༺≪◈≫༻──◇──◇──༺≪◈

Crimson Signs • Voidbound Signs • Derse Signs

[ticktockstuck]

The TickTockStuck Extended Zodiac is officially back up and running, starting today! We’re operating on a five-per-week schedule, so once every day from Monday to Friday.

[ticktockstuck]

June Update

Big updates today! It’s taken a bit more time than I originally planned but I’m happy to report some of the changes I’ve been working on the last few weeks are now live!

That delay was due mostly to...well...I found out the fun way that user-made Tumblr pages have a maximum character limit for their HTML text of 500,000 characters (and that includes spaces and HTML tags) and I had to take like a week looking over everything to make sure it’d actually fit within those constraints.

New Aspect Page

GOOD NEWS: Our new-and-improved aspect catalog is live! Barring some eventual trimming and slight editing it should even be able to fit within the 500K character limit well into the future. BAD NEWS: Our new aspect catalog is up in only a partial state, because I didn’t want to have to make y’all wait forever for me to be done revising all the old text (it’d be Autumn by the time I’d be done if I did that).

I do intend to eventually get all of the original information back into the new page, just in the form of regular updates instead of pushing it all out at once (and for the preservationists out there, I’ve got the original text safe and sound in case I ever need it). My expectation with that is adding 2 aspects a month, possibly more depending on available time. I’ll be focusing on getting the aspects we already had in there back in there, after which I’ll be getting to work on filling the rest of the catalog out.

In the meantime, you’ll just have to pardon the dust and filler blocks.

Extended Zodiac

GOOD NEWS: Our Zodiac sideblog is now updated with the aspects of Craft and One, including the Omnisearch! BAD NEWS: The Omnisearch was too big for Tumblr, and I’ve had to split the main page into four smaller pages.

Trying to update the Omnisearch in preparation for the upcoming set of signs is how I actually found out about Tumblr’s page character limit in the first place. For those who weren’t around when the sideblog started, the Omnisearch used to exist as thirteen pages (one for each caste grouping) and I eventually compiled the whole thing into one page for convenience’s sake. It’s very disappointing that I have to split it up again but thankfully I’ve done the logistics to minimize the damage, and we should be able to get every single other sign updated into the system with just four pages (and if we can’t that’s not going to be a problem for a LONG time).

The Omnisearch link on the main page for the TTSEZ still works, it just brings you to the first of the four pages (rusts, bronzes, and golds) and you use the links in the header bar to move between the others.

Future Plans

For the immediate future my schedule is going to be looking a little hectic and I may need to put TTS work on the backburner. I still plan to get aspects updated, but the main focus for the next couple weeks is going to be getting the TTS Extended Zodiac back up and running (at whatever pace ends up working out the best).

For the Zodiac, I’m still working on building up a sizeable buffer so I won’t have to stress over uploads once the TTSEZ goes live again. That said, it’ll start posting again next month and, with luck, should be able to keep posting through the end of the year.

This hectic part of my schedule should hopefully wrap up by the time we get to August, and I’ll be able to give more concrete plans for the future at that point.

[ticktockstuck]

May Update

A short update this month, but it’s all good news.

Aspect Catalog Updates

Progress on the new version of our aspect page is coming along slowly but surely. Revisions to the existing text are going to take longer than I expected but I don’t want to keep the page in limbo for too much longer. Within the next two weeks (hopefully next week) I’ll have the page up with just Space, Time, Light, and Breath included and get the rest of the aspects filled in over time as regular updates.

Extended Zodiac Updates

Sometime this week I’ll be making some updates on our sideblog to get ready for the upcoming new set of signs. This is mostly just a few little things like retagging posts and getting the Omnisearch over there updated to accommodate the two new aspects, Craft and One.

I’m expecting to be able to start posting signs again next month if everything goes well. Preparations are at a point where I’ve got a month’s worth of signs all ready to go, so when we get posting again we’ll be able to get going with a full five signs a week, and I’ve got less than a fifth of the schedule left to design so the set should be able to get posted without too many delays.

[ticktockstuck]

TTS Aspect Palette Post

Listed color names are the names of these hues in-universe, and may not accurately reflect how the same terms are used outside of TickTockStuck. I’m using this format to show how the colors look next to each other because I don’t have all of the aspect symbols done yet and I didn’t want to go half-and-half with some having the symbol and others not.

Prime Aspects

This section is a bit moot since these are the canon ones and you’ve got some resource to get these colors for yourselves, I’m still including it so you have a good reference for the specific colors I’m using.

Blood: Scar Brown background (#391806), Blood Red foreground (#AB2822)

Breath: True Blue background (#5077DF), Zephyr Blue foreground (#76DCF5)

Doom: Plague Green background (#3E661A), Black foreground (#000000)

Heart: Heartbeet background (#4E192A), Aortic Pink foreground (#AD2C63)

Hope: Heaven’s Gold background (#FADF6D), off-White foreground (#FDFDFD)

Life: Sand background (#A29789), Growing Green foreground (#92E857)

Light: Citrus Orange background (#E28A34), Solar Yellow foreground (#F7FA6E)

Mind: Decision Green background (#408F47), Synapse foreground (#75FBCC)

Rage: Dark Whine background (#4B135D), Deep Lavender foreground (#9251A8)

Space: Black background (#000000), White foreground (#FFFFFF)

Time: Scarlet background (#A8261D), Ruby foreground (#EA3D26)

Void: Lapis Lazuli background (#244D9C), Navy Blue foreground (#061953)

Vice Aspects

Glam: Velvet Violet background (#460879), Diamond Blue foreground (#98FCFF)

Glut: Roast Brown background (#CC6A28), Wormskin foreground (#FAF3D9)

Greed: Dollar Green background (#11560A), Gold foreground (#F7D60E)

Grief: Black background (#000000), Mourning Glory foreground (#14553F)

Lies: Freezing Blue background (#92F0FD), White foreground (#FFFFFF)

Lust: Amaranth background (#DF003E), Hot Peach foreground (#F9B1BD)

Pride: Blackberry background (#37282E), Plum foreground (#8865DA)

Scorn: Quicksand Tan background (#B78F4E), Mud foreground (#503119)

Sloth: Light Gray background (#B0B0B0), Stone Gray foreground (#585858)

Want: Envy Emerald background (#4CA830), Greeneye foreground (#6FDC43)

Woe: Sorrow Blue background (#1D3970), Black foreground (#000000)

Wrath: Amber background (#EDAA00), Inferno Orange foreground (#DA3C0F)

Virtue Aspects

Beast: Savannah Tan background (#FBF096), Fur Brown foreground (#744B18)

Chains: Bruise Maroon background (#71192F), Heated Gray foreground (#C8B6B6)

Grace: Meadow Green background (#BAFF5B), Light Lime foreground (#67B00F)

Heat: Cinnamon background (#861C10), Warm Orange foreground (#F09140)

Jest: Citrine background (#E4CF44), Joker’s Violet foreground (#791542)

Quest: Parchment background (#F4EFC4), Wax Red (#8A241E)

Rot: Miasma background (#5D00AA), Moss Green foreground (#84BB00)

Speed: Deep Blue background (#18049D), Impact Orange foreground (#E4A83F)

Tricks: Storm Blue background (#0D1D47), Electric Yellow foreground (#E7ED4D)

Tune: White background (#FFFFFF), Conductor’s Brown foreground (#5B3C36)

Vim: Violent Violet background (#3A065B), Artery Red foreground (#EA332B)

Word: Inkjet background (#273943), Manila foreground (#F3EEE5)

Free Aspects

Craft: Leather Brown background (#8B502A), Steel Gray foreground (#99A1A1)

Eyes: Redeye background (#B83A1F), White foreground (#FFFFFF)

Mood: Bubbly Blue background (#81D3F1), Masquerade foreground (#4225A7)

One: Off-White background (#FFFFFE), Cerulean foreground (#0191AB)

Shade: Eclipse Blue background (#05013B), Prism Blue foreground (#6FEDE0)

Sleep: Nightshade background (#5931C6), Dreamy Pink foreground (#FBCBE4)

Strife: Silver background (#C3CCD7), Rust Brown foreground (#7E362A)

Wealth: Dust Gold background (#EEC500), Treasure Yellow foreground (#FCFF90)

Why: Dark Fuchsia background (#7E1890), Fuchsia foreground (#E230C6)

Will: Midnight Green background (#27392D), Phantom Green foreground (#25E7AD)

Aspects of the Macrocosm

Ash: Crimson background (#B91B31), Charcoal Black foreground (#171624)

Depth: Abyssal Blue background (#232C47), Seance foreground (#8128C1)

Land: Dirt Brown background (#694225), Pine Green foreground (#669C58)

Locks: Toffee background (#494040), Old Copper foreground (#DABA5F)

Sky: Dawn Pink background (#D58CF1), Cloud White foreground (#FCFCE2)

Tide: Dull Turquoise background (#59C3BB), Ocean Blue foreground (#31679F)

The non-aspect of Null is a concept created by the Dolls as part of their contributions to the Alternian Extended Zodiac. It is not an aspect in the proper sense, being named specifically in reference of that fact. Its color palette uses Black (#000000) as its background color and its foreground color is a shade of orange (#D65625) that Dolls have simply named “Ember”.

[ticktockstuck]

April Update, Part 3

For those who might not be aware, TickTockStuck actually has two Twitter accounts: one for our main and one for our Zodiac sideblog. Our Zodiac account was frequently used as a way of simultaneously posting with the main Zodiac blog’s posts, but the other one...yeah I’m not gonna lie, that account’s basically a ghost town.

I made the account right after the NSFW ban here, in the wake of doomsday predictions about the future of Tumblr. Obviously we’re all still here, and while I certainly tried to make use of it the problem is just that Twitter as a platform just doesn’t work well for what TickTockStuck is trying to do. Twitter works great for the Extended Zodiac, since that’s just a lot of singular posts with sign information, but for most TTS stuff we need a lot more navigation and longer text posts to make it all come together.

Or to put things succinctly, it wasn’t exactly a comfortable experience especially when our main blog wasn’t updating that much in the first place.

I bring all this up because of, y’know, the ongoing shitshow that Twitter has been turning into over the last couple months. I’ve thought about what I want to do with our accounts there and, to summarize my current opinions

I don’t want to delete the accounts outright - I’m very much a preservationist but, more practically, I don’t want the names to get snagged by, like, some crypto creep or NFT shill.

With Twitter becoming what it is, I don’t see much of a reason to use the main TTS twitter account going forward. We weren’t exactly prolific about using it already, but consider this post an official statement that we’re not using it anymore.

I may or may not still use the TTSEZ’s account. It didn’t get a lot of attention but it got enough that it might be worth continuing cross-posting there once the TTSEZ comes back. It saves me time in production not having to worry about posting to both Tumblr and Twitter at the same time, though, so I’m leaning towards just shuttering its doors too.

There’s some bigger questions related to this, namely regarding other places we could potentially branch out for visibility, but that’s a discussion for another day.

[ticktockstuck]

April Update, Part 2

Since February our ongoing Zodiac project, [the TickTockStuck Extended Zodiac], has been on a production hiatus while we get the next set of signs made. We’ve been hard at work working on that next set, and today I just want to give a quick update on where we’re at in production.

The next set features 212 signs, and of that ~75% of the whole set has been designed. Less than 20% is ready to get posted, though, but we’re at a point where getting signs post-able is more of a priority.

To put it another way, we could start posting signs again as early as May. That’s an optimistic estimate though, and a more realistic expectation would see the TTSEZ come back right at the start of summer in June.

In the meantime, though, the aspects updates we posted about before means the sideblog is going to need a few updates. Signs will be updated as being Craftbound or Onebound as necessary, and we might queue up a few reblogs for affected signs to pass the time.

I’ll also mention that going forward into the next set I’m making it a priority to get things queued up in advance and generally make the process a little more...automated, so that I’m not stuck dividing my time working on TTSEZ updates and actual main-blog TTS work.

[ticktockstuck]

April Update, Part 1

A large part of what I’ve been working on for the past few months is working on the Verse’s catalog of aspects. For years we’ve had open gaps in the roster - there’s 52 of them and it hasn’t been an easy job finding ways to give each of them their own distinct identity. That’s why I’m happy to announce that, as of a few weeks ago, all 52 aspects have been placed, named, and conceptualized.

At our last update, there were only two I.O.U.s left in the system, a pair of free aspects. Those two are:

Craft, a visually mechanical aspect with influence over combinations and cooperation. It’s an aspect about multiple parts coming together to form a more powerful whole; the power of the collective as opposed to the individual. Within the world of TickTockStuck itself, it’s a key magical force behind the kind of alchemization you’re familiar with from canon.

One, an aspect that I’m still ironing out in terms of theme, but whose influence concerns isolation and loneliness. It’s an aspect about finding solace by oneself and creating strength through distance; the power of the individual as opposed to the collective. It might sound like a dreary one on the surface, but you’d be surprised what a little introversion can accomplish.

This is a big achievement for this project, but there’s a lot more left to do now that all 52 aspects have been set in place.

Chief among those is our aspect page, which right now mostly covers the canon aspects. I’m already in the process of updating the entire page with the full roster of aspects. The new page will be split up by aspect category (prime, virtue, vice, free, macro), but since getting every single aspect in there is going to be a long work in progress updating the text is going to be a gradual work in progress. The text that’s already there will be mostly preserved, just with adjustments after some review and proofreading.

In the short term: I don’t have fully realized symbols for all of the aspects yet, but I have figured out color palettes for all 52. I’ll be putting up a post with the hexcodes for all of them within the next week or two, similar to what I’ve got up for the Verse’s hemospectrum.

In the medium-length term: The new aspect page will be going up shortly after I’ve done that proofreading on the canon aspect, so expect it late April or early May.

In the long term: There’s more updates after that related to the aspects, but I’ll save details on those for once we get there. I’ll say right now that those updates include (but are not limited to): the planets of the Verse, the Denizens, and the Verse’s magic systems.

[ticktockstuck]

April Update

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since our last update, but in the interim we’ve kept busy and I’ve got a lot of news to cover.

I’ve actually got enough that I’ve opted to split today’s news into three separate posts, just to make everything a little more accessible (and I’ll be editing and pinning this post once they’re all up to make everything accessible).

Major ground we’ll be covering today:

Some important news about aspects in the Verse, and our catalog of 52

An update about ongoing progress on the TTS Extended Zodiac

Some thoughts and plans about our Twitter accounts

Moving forward, I’ll be making an effort to get these kinds of updates out more frequently so we don’t have such long periods of radio silence anymore. Our apologies for those kinds of delays, and thank you all for sticking with us!

[ticktockstuck]

Apropos of nothing, I’m a big fan of Yugioh (the card game) and have been for years, which I only bring up because two new monsters they announced today are straight-up just minions of the Denizen from the Land of Sweets and Slime.

Like:

These would fit in right next to the Trickey-Lime Piedra. I honestly might work the...candy “tendons” idea the vanilla one has for something of my own, that’s a gnarly visual.